FROM THE DIRECTOR |
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 I grew up in a noisy household with seven brothers and sisters. When the
noise became too much to bear, my father would yell at us to "keep it down to a loud
roar." But if we were noisy, we came by it naturally.
My mother was raised by working class Irish Democrats, while my father is the son of a Republican Irish Doctor. None of my aunts and uncles could be called wallflowers and even if the families could agree on nothing else, at least they could agree on their heritage. Like most of you, we have always celebrated Thanksgiving and other major holidays with family. Aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, parents and grandparents all come together. At our holiday meals, we always had two tables, one for the adults and one for the kids. The adults discussed current events and argued politics and as a child, I remember a lot more noise coming from their table. Today, because of that legacy, my brothers and sisters are a mixed political breed and at every holiday meal we carry on the traditional political wars. My father has always relished these heated discussions considering them an opportunity to covert his wayward children. But over the years I’ve noticed him retreat from the front lines. Now he acts more like a general, he’ll start a foray into enemy territory, then sit back, and watch the battle develop. No ground is ever given freely and, more often than not, one of us will demand source, documentation and reference for any statement not in agreement with our own position (after all, we are also from the Show Me State). My mother, God love her, has come to the point where she wants some peace and quiet in her old age. She would prefer that our time be spent enjoying each other’s company rather than turn her holiday meal into point/counterpoint. Last Christmas, fearing the family might not recover from the fallout of the presidential election, she put her foot down banning all political speech and the word "Florida." However, this Thanksgiving was different. We didn’t have the will to fight amongst ourselves. We praised the firefighters and policeman in New York. We prayed for our armed forces overseas. And for once, each of us was thankful for the same things. Thankful to be so fortunate and pledging to help the less fortunate. Mom had a nice holiday meal and because we kept it down to a loud roar, we finally heard what was going on around us. Wishing you the best this holiday season, Frank Finnegan [BIO] |
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KEEPING
IT TO A LOUD ROAR